What do you do when your enemy falls? - Micah

Micah 1:8-9 (ESV)

For this I will lament and wail;

I will go stripped and naked;

I will make lamentation like the jackals,

and mourning like the ostriches.

For her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

What do you do when your enemy is about to be destroyed? Do you rejoice? Do you say, “You’re finally getting what you deserve!”   Micah is a prophet that was sent by God to speak to both the northern Kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah.  The above  verses are said about Samaria, the capital city of the northern Kingdom, Israel. Because of their sins, God was about to destroy them. Micah, who is from Judah, has an opportunity to laugh at their coming destruction. God is going to punish them for all their sin. Instead of rejoicing, he laments.  He takes no joy in his brothers to the north being disciplined by God. He realizes there is no cure for their sin since they have rejected the God of love, the God of forgiveness, the God of blessing. They have turned to idols.  Perhaps Micah had in mind the verses that King Solomon wrote years before.

Proverbs 24:17-18 (ESV)

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,

and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

lest the LORD see it and be displeased,

and turn away his anger from him.

The question, before us, is do we lament, do we grieve over the sins of those among us? Or, do we just simply complain about them? Or, even mock them? Remember, Israel was Judah‘s brothers. Israel was the northern 10 tribes, and Judah and Benjamin were the southern tribes. These were fellow brothers of the seed of Abraham.  Even though they had split the kingdom, Micah felt compassion for his brothers. Paul told the Galatian church how to handle a brother that might be falling into sin:

Galatians 6:1-5 (ESV)

Bear One Another’s Burdens

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

We need to be sorrowful about the sins of those among us. We need to reach out to try to help them. Israel was gone! Micah knew that! But he still mourned sin in his midst.